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Digital Foundry: Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed

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Vena

Member
Maybe the framerate limitations for BotW on Wii U are not with the CPU but with the GPU. The amount of aliasing and low textures would also point towards the GPU.

FPS bottlenecks are CPU limited almost always. Unless you have some huge GPGPU back side compensation. That's why Jaguars still haunt the Pro.
 

bomblord1

Banned
Would be solved by either quadcore A72 or octocore A57.

Whatever it is, the throughput is 100% much higher than the WiiUs since we know BotW struggles with 30FPS while Switch is frame perfect at 30FPS under explosions and other effects. Since the dock does not scale the CPU, the mystery remains given these current clocks not exactly making too much sense.

IPC of A57, IIRC, isn't good enough to make up for this discrepancy as a quadcore at 1GHZ.

I thought we knew the CPU core count and type? If we don't even know that these speeds are even less helpful than I originally thought.

Edit: Yes the digital foundry article says quadcore A57
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
That info isn't sourced. They used it based on X1.



Just stop.

Nope, he's full Oreganoing now, you can't stop it. Just witness it while your brain cells slowly but steadily melt because of the Oreganoing.
 
Holy crap I missed that. Considering the CPU was already a big bottleneck on the Wii U that's terrible. It will struggle to run last gen games never mind PS4/XBO games.

Maybe it will struggle to run NES games. Come on man, all I see from you is crying all the time. Take it like an adult...the console is not the most powerful ever but it is still more capable then the Wii U.
 

KAL2006

Banned
Not surprised, Nintendo is not in the spec race anymore.

$249 with 64GB
$299 for 128GB and Splatoon.

This is likely scenario for launch. Though I'm expecting a 2nd bundle game targeted for adults. Either a FIFA/NBA Bundle or Skyrim Bundle.

If Switch sales slow down alot after Zelda releases in June.

I expect Basic SkU bundles that come with free games for the holidays
$250 Pokemon Stars Bundle
$250 Mario Maker Bundle
 

Philippo

Member
so on a scale where 3ds is jak 2 and scorpio is the last of us part 2, where does the switch fall?

Ftfy, and i guess
if i got the system right
:

3ds=Jak 2
WiiU=Uncharted
Switch=Uncharted 2
Xbo=Uncharted 3 Remastered
Ps4=The last of us remastered
Pro=Uncharted 4
Scorpio=The last of us part 2
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
If they were still hoping for that at this point, then this won't change their minds.

Also, perhaps wait for the rest of the specs to come out before being dissapointed or talking affordability. Clock speeds alone ain't gonna give you that info...

We've got a wee bit more than clockspeeds to assume the system won't be remotely cutting edge in performance. Wouldn't mind being wrong though.
But yeah, affordability....gotta consider that Nintendo tax too. Hopefully it's not too expensive. I think for Nintendo's sake an entry level price is wise.

Again. Publishers will go where the money is. They always do. Or are people forgetting about all the dumbed down versions of popular ips on the wii/ds? Remember call of duty on ds?

Yes, dumbed down variants of popular AAA titles, mainline titles that rarely if ever were represented on said systems. We may get the same, along with the odd ports here and there, but my argument is simply that people hungry for these mainline AAA games need to suck it up and accept that for at least the third generation in a row this is not happening* on Nintendo platforms. And that's okay because that's not their focus.

*pending my conclusion jumping being inaccurate

This is where I'm at. I wouldn't have bought Dark Souls or Mass Effect on this thing regardless. However if this is true it makes $249 kind of a tough sell for me. $199 I'm in and it'll probably sell very well at that price. But $249 seems more likely. Could sit out the launch if that's the case.

Yeah pretty much. I don't game on console anyway unless I absolutely have to, but Nintendo hardware has long sit nicely alongside my PC. Honestly I have more issue with stuff like the PS4 due to how common multi platform games are these days and thus the increasing redundancy of Microsoft and Sony's offerings in face of my PC. At least with Nintendo I'm guaranteed a bunch of games I can't find elsewhere.

I'm just hoping for something more akin to the Wii over the Wii U, in terms of quantity of experimental, B-game stuff from both Nintendo and third parties. The Wii U really lacked a large, obscure library that the Wii had. And that was something I adored about the latter.
 
Obviously I haven't read the last 70 odd pages, but has anyone speculated as to why the Switch has a fan inbuilt if it is so apparently "weak"?

Clearly, I am no tech-head, but if this can "barely" up-port Wii U games, why does it have cooling? Why isn't it like every other portable ever, fanless.

Knowing Nintendo, they wouldn't wack a fan in there unnecessarily. This machine must be doing something taxing.
 
I'm guessing in about 2-3 years there will be a New Switch with Pascal or Volta Tegra, depending on which architecture can be readied a year in advance. And so on every 2-3 years.
 

Dryk

Member
So the general vibe I'm getting from this is that the console mode is heavily restricted in order to make sure that it's easy to scale between console and portable mode. It seems as though they locked down what they could get away with in portable mode and then spec'd the console mode based on that.
 

Vena

Member
Maybe the framerate limitations for BotW on Wii U are not with the CPU but with the GPU. The amount of aliasing and low textures would also point towards the GPU.

It's not that clear. They start by saying that the earlier leak is correct, but the clocks are wrong.

It would be odd to me for them to know the CPU but also have no idea on the SM/core count of the GPU. I took their wording to mean that their only solid info is on the clocks, everything else is supposition based on past rumors.

They even openly say they think or believe this chip has Pascal features but they make no definitive statements. So they know something but it's limited on hard details.
 
Okay, can I just point out that ALL of the devs who are working on the Switch already knows about its specs?

I'm pretty sure if it was a problem, we'd be seeing a repeat of the pre-Wii U months. IJS.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
No on the leaking side ever hinted at this. I literally said the other day the GPU was 2x-6x and that estimation especially the low end was talked down, seems I was on the mark considering the clockrate coming in to play

You thought that it was going to be twice as powerful as it is.
I thought that it would be one third more powerful than it is.
 

saskuatch

Member
judging how under powered this console is and with it launching without Zelda in a non-holiday season it is going to be a real slow start. I expect no major 3rd party support other then traditional portable 3rd parties.
 
Okay, can I just point out that ALL of the devs who are working on the Switch already knows about its specs?

I'm pretty sure if it was a problem, we'd be seeing a repeat of the pre-Wii U months. IJS.

Yeah, now they know for sure how powerful the device is.

But this is Gaf and just wait untile someone says that the devs dont speak bad about the console this time because they signed an NDA, even when they decided not to work on it BECAUSE it is so weak.
 

KAL2006

Banned
I'm guessing in about 2-3 years there will be a New Switch with Pascal or Volta Tegra, depending on which architecture can be readied a year in advance. And so on every 2-3 years.

No in 2 or 3 years Nintendo will lower price to appeal to kids market even more with crazy Pokemon bundles. They will also have better margins for better profit on the hardware.

I can imagine a Switch Micro that's a true handheld that uses the same inards but not dockable or a Switch XL that's bigger with a 1080p screen and larger battery size and runs at full docked power without being docked. Or a Switch home console that's cheap and not hybrid.

Switch 2 will release in 5 years at most
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Holy crap I missed that. Considering the CPU was already a big bottleneck on the Wii U that's terrible. It will struggle to run last gen games never mind PS4/XBO games.
Switch's CPU will not struggle to run last gen games, at least not any more than Espresso did. Last gen games were very CPU-FLOPs heavy, and A57 @ 1GHz slaps around Espresso @1.25GHz there, in every conceivable way.
 
No in 2 or 3 years Nintendo will lower price to appeal to kids market even more with crazy Pokemon bundles. They will also have better margins for better profit on the hardware.

I can imagine a Switch Micro that's a true handheld that uses the same inards but not dockable or a Switch XL that's bigger with a 1080p screen and larger battery size and runs at full docked power without being docked. Or a Switch home console that's cheap and not hybrid.

Switch 2 will release in 5 years at most
I'm thinking more New 3DS/DSi iterative upgrades, but at a more regular rate. With portable only and home only versions in the mix.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
FPS bottlenecks are CPU limited almost always. Unless you have some huge GPGPU back side compensation. That's why Jaguars still haunt the Pro.

Every game that's running under native 4K on Pro is GPU-bound or bandwidth-limited.
 

Teletraan1

Banned
That's fine. As long as I get a price the is in line with the specs, i'm good.

That is where I am at. If I get to play whatever kind of games came to the 3DS or Vita + Nintendo first party at a reasonable price for the hardware I am in. If they come out with a $250-299 price point I will wait for a sale/refurb to jump in.
 

AzaK

Member

AniHawk

Member
Ftfy, and i guess
if i got the system right
:

3ds=Jak 2
WiiU=Uncharted
Switch=Uncharted 2
Xbo=Uncharted 3 Remastered
Ps4=The last of us remastered
Pro=Uncharted 4
Scorpio=The last of us part 2

thing is we already know that the last of us is the best one, just like we know the scorpio is going to be the best. we don't know anything about the last of us part 2 yet aside from it starring
ellie
and
joel
 

bomblord1

Banned
So every flop number is wrong, basically. The Wii U couldn't have been that inferior to the PS3 and XBox 360, could it? And the PS3 should have been way more powerful than the X360

It was on a newer architecture. People really underestimate how much of a difference that makes.
 

thefro

Member
Is Eurogamer possibly comparing apples to oranges here?

From the article:

DF said:
Documentation supplied to developers along with the table above ends with this stark message: "The information in this table is the final specification for the combinations of performance configurations and performance modes that applications will be able to use at launch."

If this much is available for "applications" (i.e. games in this case) to use, what's running the OS? There's clearly either some other processors running it or it's taking up some of the clock cycles.
 

KAL2006

Banned
That is where I am at. If I get to play whatever kind of games came to the 3DS or Vita + Nintendo first party at a reasonable price for the hardware I am in. If they come out with a $250-299 price point I will wait for a sale/refurb to jump in.

So would $250 be unreasonable for a portable Wii U.

A Shield Tablet with a weaker K1 Chip and no bundled controller, dock or extra battery grip costs $200.

Vita launched for $250 which at the time was a premium handheld which the Switch is.
 
I agree as far as that goes. At this point in the wiiU's prelifespan we had multiple anonymous devs trashing the console specifically the CPU.

Right?

Yeah, now they know for sure how powerful the device is.

But this is Gaf and just wait untile someone says that the devs dont speak bad about the console this time because they signed an NDA, even when they decided not to work on it BECAUSE it is so weak.

Ain't that the truth.
 

-Horizon-

Member
Ftfy, and i guess
if i got the system right
:

3ds=Jak 2
WiiU=Uncharted
Switch=Uncharted 2
Xbo=Uncharted 3 Remastered
Ps4=The last of us remastered
Pro=Uncharted 4
Scorpio=The last of us part 2

So...you're saying the switch is gonna be the best console of the bunch?
 
It was on a newer architecture. People really underestimate how much of a difference that makes.

OK, according to Wikipedia the 360 was 115.2 GFLOPS. Comparing all three (Wii U, 360 and PS3 having somewhere between 230 and 240) that makes total sense to me.

Anyways, these are all processor specs. I wonder about the GPU - which is the one that matters.
 
Is Eurogamer possibly comparing apples to oranges here?

From the article:



If this much is available for "applications" (i.e. games in this case) to use, what's running the OS? There's clearly either some other processors running it or it's taking up some of the clock cycles.
OS probably runs in the background on another processor. Maybe even a lower-power one, if the SoC was designed that way.

Saying certain frequencies are available to applications at launch means just what it says. It's like how the PSP limited games to running the processor at 222MHz at launch. Later it was unlocked to 333MHz. You don't rate a frequency lower if it's running at a higher frequency and cycles are being stolen. It's a frequency, not a volume.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
pretty much. I don't game on console anyway unless I absolutely have to, but Nintendo hardware has long sit nicely alongside my PC. Honestly I have more issue with stuff like the PS4 due to how common multi platform games are these days and thus the increasing redundancy of Microsoft and Sony's offerings in face of my PC. At least with Nintendo I'm guaranteed a bunch of games I can't find elsewhere.

I'm just hoping for something more akin to the Wii over the Wii U, in terms of quantity of experimental, B-game stuff from both Nintendo and third parties. The Wii U really lacked a large, obscure library that the Wii had. And that was something I adored about the latter.

This is where I'm at, but in addition to this, since I have a PC, the real value of Nintendo hardware for me is in good portable gaming. Good portable gaming is the one thing PC can't give you right now.

As for western third party, I imagine we might see a repeat of the early PSP and Vita years where they tried some portable versions of western franchises. That'll peter out, and most will just leave. Hopefully the big stuff like FIFA, 2K, and Madden stays. PSP and Vita (and to a certain extent Game Gear) tried the powerful handheld route before, but have we ever had a handheld that's actually more powerful than the consoles of the previous generation? The PSP was similar to PS2 but still inferior. The Vita was similar to PS3 but still weaker. I guess the Game Gear was literally a handheld Master System.

Maybe the undivided attention of Nintendo's first party studios and properties might hold up the Switch enough for those types of games to stick around a little longer. I don't know.
 

SURGEdude

Member
I'm guessing in about 2-3 years there will be a New Switch with Pascal or Volta Tegra, depending on which architecture can be readied a year in advance. And so on every 2-3 years.

If this sells at $299 I say investors will put a stop to a revision. This a wonderful mobile, and perhaps the most far behind stationary console Nintendo has created yet. The shareholders will be inclined to do something to stop the bleeding.
 
Obviously I haven't read the last 70 odd pages, but has anyone speculated as to why the Switch has a fan inbuilt if it is so apparently "weak"?

Clearly, I am no tech-head, but if this can "barely" up-port Wii U games, why does it have cooling? Why isn't it like every other portable ever, fanless.

Knowing Nintendo, they wouldn't wack a fan in there unnecessarily. This machine must be doing something taxing.
It's still weak but it's probably more to do with the size and having it enclosed in a box when it's in tv mode.. Phones do overheat
 
I didn't read every comment here, but I kinda get the feeling people are viewing this as some huge negative, and a bad sign for the console, but in the grand scheme of things, I really don't feel it matters. It's more than likely still plenty capable in ways that outdoes the Wii-U. Even if it isn't, I think they've still probably done enough to make sure they've built a machine that they feel will make the vision they have for Switch possible.

I always try to be careful not to ever put too much weight into technical superiority and try my best to keep in mind the importance of trying new things, or attempting to be somewhat creative with a product. I trust Nintendo's vision and creativity will validate the technical decisions they've made.
 

bomblord1

Banned
Could you elaborate? I haven't found much, and nothing that tells me anything about the console's power... except Dark Souls 3, but as someone mentioned, FROM isn't king of performance.

Here's a few I can remember

Dark Souls Trilogy
Skyrim
Dragon Quest 10
Dragon Quest 11
Binding of Isaac
Just Dance
Sonic the Hedgehog 2017
Steam World
Stardew Valley
Yooka Laylee
 

SURGEdude

Member
I didn't read every comment here, but I kinda get the feeling people are viewing this as some huge negative, and a bad sign for the console, but in the grand scheme of things, I really don't feel it matters. It's more than likely still plenty capable in ways that outdoes the Wii-U. Even if it isn't, I think they've still probably done enough to make sure they've built a machine that they feel will make the vision they have for Switch possible.

I always try to be careful not to ever put too much weight into technical superiority and try my best to keep in mind the importance of trying new things, or attempting to be somewhat creative with a product. I trust Nintendo's vision and creativity will validate the technical decisions they've made.

I agree with you in the best case scenario.

But this is a gut punch to 3rd parties outside of mobile ports. After Nintendo has already turned them off how will they respond? Then figure in the that outside the Wii market Nintendo has a pretty consistent decline and what do you get?

If they wanna beat the Vita and 3DS and take over that market then they've done a great job. But that market is winding down.

They've learned nothing from Wii U. Ironically their best retro console but worst forward thinking one yet.
 
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